As far as Arts Revelstoke Executive Director Robyn Goldsmith is concerned, “the party stops for no one.”
And while they might be many chilly months away, planning is already heating up for two well-loved arts programs – REVY.Live Outside and Luna Fest 2025.
Artist applications for both programs are now open and would-be participants have until Jan. 31 to apply.
This year’s REVY.Live Outside, the city’s summer-long music festival will feature 64 nights of live music in downtown Grizzly Plaza.
“We are looking for variety in what we showcase to a small mountain town that needs a bit of a shake-up,” says Goldsmith, noting the popular program will feature many local performers as well as others from around the province. “If we bring in bigger events, we might move to Queen Elizabeth Park.”
Goldsmith says REVY.Live Outside has been providing the joy of live music to residents and visitors for some 30 years with very favourable reviews.
“It’s a really unique program; lots of locals go down as families, visitors just stumble upon it and the feedback is universally positive.”
This year, REVY.Live Outside will begin on June 28, with a cooperative event to celebrate Pride Month with Open Mountains Revelstoke.
LUNA Fest, a night of nocturnal arts and wonder, will take place from Sept. 19-21 and will again include
LUNA Arts and LUNA Sound.
Artists of all types are invited to apply to share their unique ideas with Revelstoke and its visitors in this year’s weekend program whose theme is “Disguise and Transformation.”
“Friday is a ticketed musical night, but the rest of the weekend is free and family-friendly,” says Goldsmith, noting participants come from across the country, many of them from Vancouver. “This is a great opportunity for artists and a cornerstone on the calendar for talented local artists. If you come, you will no doubt encounter something you’ve never seen before.”
Goldsmith says that masks have a long and rich history in Indigenous and Western arts and cultures and are used to create opportunities to play, to scare, to transform, to confuse, and to inhabit alternative identities.
For LUNA 2025, Arts Revelstoke proposes the exploration of masks and disguises from multiple angles: as tools of concealment and revelation; as acts of performance and transformation and as vehicles for empathy and understanding.
“This theme is inspired by the idea of transformation — physically, emotionally, and socially,” Goldsmith adds. “We invite LUNA artists to explore the layers of self-image, perception, and authenticity as well as
the tension between individual identity and collective expectation.”
Artists might also choose to explore the moment of change, the liminal space between who we were and who we are becoming.
Artists may apply at: https://artsrevelstoke.com/luna-arts-application. Following the Jan. 31 closing, applications will be adjudicated by committee for both events.
For more information, contact Robyn Goldsmith, Executive Director, at ed@artsrevelstoke.com.
